Gambling establishments customarily supply coin cups for their patrons to use to hold coins which are played in slot machines. Typically, a user will take a coin cup and fill it with a number of coins and then use those coins to play the slot machines. This coin cup allows the user to carry the coins around in a convenient manner. Also, when the patron of the gambling establishment wins at the slot machine, the slot machine will expel numerous coins, the quantity of which depends on the particular win. These numerous coins are then gathered up and placed in the coin cup by the winning patron and either spent again at the slot machine or other gambling tables, or kept by the patron as his winnings. In any case, the coin cup has become the means by which patrons of gambling institutions carry around their coins.
However, even though the coin cup makes it easier to carry around coins as compared with, for example, having to carry the coins in one's hand or one's pockets, the coin cup still has many inadequacies. For example, the coins carried in the coin cup become a heavy burden when carried by the user for a prolonged period of time. Also, because the coin cups of various individuals are identical, there is always the danger that one will set down his cup next to another individual's and unintentionally pick up the wrong cup. Furthermore, patrons carrying around coin cups may be subject to pilfering by unscrupulous individuals at the gambling establishment who intentionally pick up the wrong cup when the cup is set down while the player rests his arms or is preoccupied with spinning symbols. In any event, absolute control of the contents of a discrete portable cup is iffy at best.
In addition, gambling establishments often wish to promote their establishment using, for example, inexpensive items which may be used by the patrons of the gambling establishment while at the establishment and later kept as a memento or thrown away. It is therefore desirous that such items have some imprinting on them which affiliates the item with the particular gambling establishment or has some other promotional reason. Such gambling establishments also give away such items to their patrons, in which case the cost associated with each item is of particular importance and must be kept to a reasonable minimum. Additionally, such an item should have some useful purpose pertaining to the gambling experience and ideally will have a positive effect on the patron by, for example, reducing the fatigue associated with performing the gambling activity. The coin holder accesory of the present invention is ideal for meeting those goals.
There have been attempts in the past to provide a means for reducing the fatigue associated with transporting the coin cup by patrons at a gambling establishment. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,761, issued to Luque, discloses a slot bag gambling accessory comprising a closeable pouch which is used to transport a coin cup. However, among the many inadequacies of this prior attempt is the relatively complicated structure of the device which increases the cost and difficulty in manufacturing the device. Also, this prior attempt, which discloses a closable pouch to fully enclose the coin cup fails to provide an easily manufactured product which the gambling establishment can afford to give away to its patrons, while still providing a device which has utility when used by the patrons while performing a gambling activity at the gambling establishment. Thus, there is a need to provide an apparatus which is inexpensive to manufacture, is durable, provides the utility of supporting a coin cup used by the patron at the gambling establishment and, above all, places the coins in a readily observable and controllable location at all times during its use.
In an attempt to solve some of the problems remaining after the Luque device, Cavadini et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,319 taught a method of holding a slot machine coin cup involving a closed-circle loop strap dimensioned to circumscribe a tapered coin-cup inserted therethrough and strap means stitched to the loop at diametrically opposite points of the perimeter thereof and extending perpendicularly therefrom for suspending the cup from the player's neck or shoulders.
This teaching suffered from the fact that while the hopefully coin-filled cup was supported by the player, it was not secured to the player and as a result was subject to swaying and spilling during the player's movement. Furthermore, the cup could be readily stolen from the player while she/he was diverted by favorable images on the screen being played. The device was also extremely awkward and uncomfortable when used by women of exceptionally full bosom and left much to be desired.
Accordingly, a number of problems of coin storage and transport still remain and it is toward the resolution of these problems that the present invention is directed.